Slender : Persevere
by Otorisosa-kan
Summary: It has been about a month since Anne has escaped and she hasn't found anywhere to shelter without being found by Slenderman. Will this new hotel give her the sanctuary that she seeks?
1. Chapter 1

Miranda never really expected much on a boring, rainy Wednesday evening. She sat by the counter of Hotel Lynx, flicking through her magazine in boredom. She popped her pink bubble-gum in sync with turning the pages. Lightning flashed and the entrance doors swung open, a poor victim of the storm stumbling in. Wet footsteps sounded across the tiled floor and Miranda heaved a sigh.

"Can I help you?" she asked before popping her bubble-gum again.

"Please…give me a room…" the girl whispered.

Miranda looked down at the young girl and scoffed.

"Where are your parents, kid?" she asked and turned back to her magazine.

Miranda didn't see the girl leave but her attention was caught when wet hands slammed themselves on the counter desperately.

"Please!" a more mature voice sounded "I need a room."

Miranda blinked up in surprise at the young woman that now stood before her. Her ginger curls covered her eyes and she was dressed in an ice blue dress which made Miranda wonder what the woman was on, it didn't suit her.

"Sure, honey," she said and put her magazine down to grab a pen and paper "What will you be paying on? Credit or cash?"

She froze when cold wet fingertips met her chin and directed her gaze towards the woman's face. For the first time, Miranda saw the woman's blue eyes that flashed red briefly, catching her in a trance.

"I'm afraid I don't have any money at the moment but I'll be willing to work here to pay it off," she said in a soft purr and Miranda felt herself smiling in spite of the woman's creepy aura.

"Oh well that will be fine!" Miranda said and gave the woman the penthouse keys "I'll make sure to inform my boss."

"Thank you…it's Miranda, isn't it? Miranda…Swann?"

"That's right, miss," Miranda smiled warmly and sat down in her chair "Swann being my mother's maiden name you see. Better than being Miranda Smith, of course."

"My, what a pretty name," the woman simpered delicately "Oh, my name is Lucinda White by the way."

"And that's a fine name for you, Miss White," Miranda nodded and took her magazine back out "Well, I'll be seeing you tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Miranda. I trust that I'll have a good night's sleep here."

"Oh, you can count on our rooms, Miss White," Miranda grinned "We didn't get our four stars for nothing, you see!"

"Good, I'm so glad to have come here."

Miranda saw her pick up a white teddy bear and walked over to the lift. And Miranda swore to herself to lay off the alcohol because she swore she saw the woman's insanely long ginger hair start to turn white once it was all inside the lift and the doors closed. Miranda shook her head, blinking in disbelief. A few minutes ticked by and she frowned when she noticed that the counter was wet.

"Now how did that happen?" she asked as she couldn't remember what had happened in the last ten minutes.


	2. Chapter 2

Anne fell onto the large bed, clutching Alice close to her as she caught her breath. Sweat trickled down her face as her original features rushed back to her. She turned to her large mane of snow white hair and shuffled through it in a panic. She brought out a raw steak she had taken from a butcher's son and sunk her teeth into it, ripping it and hungrily devouring it. She gasped and wiped the blood from her mouth. She cuddled Alice tenderly to her chest, panting.

"Finally, a break…" she whispered to her "I…I can't go on…I'm so tired…"

Tears collected in her eyes as she ran her fingers through Alice's dirty fur. She fingered the tear in her arm thoughtfully and sighed.

"How long…has it been?" she asked her companion "Since I…since I ran away? Since I fell under his power? Since I last saw…saw…?"

Her eyes widened as she searched for that one name but sighed when she finally remembered it.

"Jack…since I last saw Jack?"

She sighed again and pressed her lips to Alice's forehead. A searing pain cut through her head and she writhed on the bed, emitting a loud cry of pain.

"No…no…" she whispered as she battled with Slenderman over her mind "Not now, no more…I'm so tired, please leave alone."

Her head jerked from the right to the left, her neck sometimes cracking with the sudden movement as she writhed in pain. That was when she finally did it. She finally managed to forge a fake memory to present and steer the Slenderman off track. She had been trying to accomplish such a feat for the whole month and she finally did it. She froze when Slenderman examined the forgery and slowly let her mind go and she sighed. Tears streaked down her face as she sobbed. She curled up into a ball and breathed heavily. Soon she drifted off to sleep as the storm continued to rage outside in the night.

* * *

Slenderman withdrew from Anne's mind and turned to the Rake.

_"She's headed for the coast," _he said _"She might be planning to cross into a new country."_

The Rake crooned and raked his claws through the soil, cocking his head to the side curiously. Slenderman faced towards where the coast was in the north. Jeff suddenly stumbled into the forest clearing, his knife stained with blood as usual.

"She's gone south into the hotel," he panted after running through the storm "I think we can get her cornered…"

_"No, that wasn't Anne you saw," _Slenderman said _"That was a decoy, she's headed north towards the coast."_

"It wasn't a decoy!" Jeff asserted with a snarl "I'm perfectly sure that was Anne!"

_"Her hair has been growing a lot during the past few weeks," _Slenderman argued _"She's growing more powerful so of course she's going to use decoys to trick you."_

"I don't understand why we're chasing after her," Jeff whined "I mean, what are we going to do with her when we find her?"

_"First, we need to cut her hair," _Slenderman folded his arms _"Then we need to recapture her. It might be necessary to break her mind in and I'll have to start from scratch."_

Slenderman sighed in frustration. It had taken a century to build Anne to become what she was. Not only was it a waste of time, but it was a failed experiment. He had to delve deeper into her mind to conquer her completely. He didn't dive in too deep for the sake of preserving some humanity in her to lure humans into his trap. Of course, that part of humanity was holding her back from surrendering to her urge to kill and feed upon humans. Slenderman realised that she couldn't be human and supernatural at the same time, so he will need to eliminate her human side completely. It was such a pity, she seemed to be the perfect creature to work in his ranks. The Rake snarled and Slenderman turned to see a car had broken down nearby. He smirked down at the creature and nodded, watching him run off to kill the passengers.

"So, we're heading to the coast next then?" Jeff said as he listened to the screams in delight "But why can't you just take another little girl and make her into an unblemished proxy too? This Anne chasing is getting a bit tiring and boring…"

_"I can't just let Anne go running around with the power that she possesses now," _Slenderman said _"Also, I believe she is carrying something that I want."_

"What's that?"

Slenderman looked down as the young girl from the car crashed into him and screamed. He snatched her up and raised her to his face as she screamed more, kicking and thrashing. She was about seven years old, too old to break into her mind and manipulate her like he had manipulated Anne. And she looked frail, she wouldn't do for a proxy. He closed his fingers around the girl's body tighter.

_"Something that I have been wishing for a long time now," _he answered as the girl began losing her breath _"And she has been the key to it ever since I found her."_

There was a sickening snap as he broke the girl's spine then devoured her soul as it tried to leave to be reincarnated. He dropped the limp body and leaned into Jeff, whispering something in his ear. Jeff's black eyes widened and he grinned his usual sadistic grin while running a hand along his knife.

"Oh, that is most interesting…" he purred.

* * *

Anne coughed as she emptied her stomach out into the toilet and panted.

"I knew that steak was off," she grumbled "I just hope they can give me decent food in this hotel."

She flushed the toilet and pushed herself up to her feet. She stepped out of her dirty dress and into one of the dressing gowns that was provided by the hotel. The door knocked and she hurried out of the bathroom, her snow white hair turning ginger as she made her way to open the door.

"Good morning, ma'am," the young bellboy smiled and wheeled the food service trolley in "I have your sausages and eggs here with your fruit juice and ice cream…"

He gave a confused smile.

"A particularly odd craving…" he said and Anne handed him some bills that she had found in her mane earlier.

"Haven't had ice cream in a while, wanted ice cream," Anne shrugged and batted her eyes "Thank you, dear."

The bellboy blushed as he got a glimpse of her cleavage and served her breakfast and hurried out. He paused at the door and looked over his shoulder. Anne grinned as she decided to mess about and winked, a sneaky tendril of hair tapping his ankle to insert a dirty thought into his mind. He blushed even more, left, closed the door and Anne sighed as the natural white colour rushed back into her hair and flopped down onto one of the chairs. She blinked as she thought about the idea with sausages and ice cream, shrugged and decided to go for it. She wolfed down her breakfast eagerly, unaware that this craving of hers was far from natural.


	3. Chapter 3

Anne sat down at the reception desk and read the newspaper. It had been a week since she first arrived at the hotel and she had wooed her way into taking a receptionist job, having her hair look as if it were bobbed as she presented herself to the hotel manager. She traded her blue dress to the hotel uniform of a darker blue jacket, skirt and white blouse. She read about the late disappearance of a family, their car had been found nearby the hotel. With a grimace, she lowered the paper and stared at the blank computer screen. She had a hunch what had happened to them and rather not think about it. She pushed the newspaper aside and stared at the wall beside her in thought. The doors swung open and she sighed in relief. Finally, a customer to keep her thoughts occupied for the night.

"May I help you…?"

She looked up and jumped slightly when she saw Jeff's disfigured face a few inches away from her.

"…Sir?" she squeaked out.

"Normal humans would have screamed, Anne," Jeff scolded as he pulled back and shook his head.

"My name is Lucinda," Anne argued.

"Normal humans would have fainted," Jeff grinned.

"Would you like a room?" Anne smiled nervously.

"You're such a bad actress."

"How long will you be staying for?"

"Come on now, Annie. Drop the ignorant look and act, it's pathetic."

"My name is Lucinda, now will you pay in cash or cheque?"

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Would you prefer the view of the forest or the mountains?"

"You really had to go for ginger, didn't you?"

"There's nothing wrong with being ginger!" Anne snapped as she stood from her place and gave him a fierce glower.

Jeff shrugged dismissively, twirling his knife in his hand. Anne eyed the blood trail behind him warily and huffed.

"You know I'm going to have to explain the mess you've caused," she snarled and made her way around the desk.

"Just say a lady had a little accident," Jeff smirked and shrugged.

"You're a guy, you wouldn't know the difference between actual blood and menstrual blood," Anne scowled as she let out a long white tendril to sweep the blood out of the door.

She flicked the remnants off before withdrawing it back with the others and turned to Jeff.

"I'm not going back and I'm not going to let a petty little killer like you kill me," she said sternly.

"Oh harsh," Jeff raised his hands "I'm a serial killer, not a petty little one. Get it right."

"You look petty compared to Slenderman," Anne sneered.

Jeff rolled his eyes. Anne shifted and sighed, shaking her head.

"Please, don't go back to him and tell him I'm here," she begged "I'm so tired of running, I just want to rest."

"You need rest, considering what's coming," Jeff shrugged.

"Why, Slenderman's coming to kill me?" Anne raised an eyebrow.

"No. Something to do with…"

Anne jumped when he darted forward and tapped her belly with his knife.

"…here."

Jeff grunted when a fist shaped group of white tendrils smacked him in the face. Anne watched him skid across the floor and placed a hand on her belly.

"What do you mean?" she asked carefully.

Jeff started laughing hysterically and Anne backed away cautiously.

"Think about it!" he laughed "Why does Slenderman think of you as a precious little treasure? Why has he been manipulating you from the beginning instead of killing you? Why have you become his unblemished proxy instead of a regular one?"

"He broke into my mind at the right time and the conditions were just right," Anne frowned in confusion.

"Yeah but he could have just dived straight in and completely traumatize you to turn you into a regular old proxy," Jeff grinned.

"But I wouldn't be as powerful," Anne whispered.

"Think about it," Jeff folded his arms "Slenderman wouldn't just simply make his own equal that could easily overpower him for no reason."

Anne just stared at him blankly and Jeff grinned wider.

"He needed someone powerful enough for a very special task. A powerful _female _for a very _important _and special task."

"Female?" Anne echoed and stared at the floor in thought "But females…"

Her eyes widened and she slapped a hand to her mouth in horror. Jeff laughed as she shook her head.

"No! No that wouldn't work, he's not even human and I…I…"

"You're half of him, sweet cheeks," Jeff grinned "And you never know, it could be mine too."

"_WHAT?!_"

Jeff laughed as Anne balked, collapsing to her knees in horror.

"I may be disfigured and kill like a monster but I still count as a human which means it could work between us too," he cackled "Think about it, you can't remember anything in between your peaceful moments in writing. Anything could have happened to you."

"You're sick, disgusting, why…?" Anne whispered, her face showing clear disgust.

Jeff just laughed, holding his stomach as he did so, then grinned at their small audience by the elevator.

"She's pregnant, I bet my trusty knife on it!" he declared and Anne looked up at them in horror.

"Sleep!" she ordered, her eyes flashing red and the whole crowd dropped to the floor, sleeping.

Jeff cocked his head to the side thoughtfully.

"Wish I could do that," he huffed.

"Get out…" Anne stood "Get out! Now! Get out, out of my sight!"

Her tendrils of hair shot out and began attacking Jeff. He swiped at one and smirked at her before dashing outside. He paused by the door and blew her a kiss.

"I'll catch you later," he said and ducked to avoid getting hit by a powerful thrust from a tendril.

He ran off, laughing and singing like a madman. Anne panted for breath, disguise abandoned and pressed a hand to her belly again. It couldn't be true. But when Anne slowly brought a glowing tendril to her belly, she gasped. She sensed the life. She was actually pregnant.


	4. Chapter 4

Anne appeared on a mountain ledge with a gasp, fresh burns on her face and arms, clutching a slightly blackened Alice tight to her chest. She watched helplessly as the flames consumed the hotel below her and covered her mouth, tears brimming her eyes. She could hear the cries of the humans inside and those that escaped the hotel were chased down by Jeff, Slenderman or the Rake. The system looked so perfect, burn everything to get rid of the evidence and if there were any survivors, well, no survivors allowed. Anne couldn't tear her eyes away from the flaming wreckage. All this, he's putting in so much effort just to find her? She placed a hand on her stomach, still feeling the expected pregnancy sickness as well as how nauseated she felt about the whole situation. How could this have happened? Anne thought monsters like Slenderman wouldn't have that need to reproduce. But imagine creatures like Slenderman appearing everywhere, the human population wouldn't stand a chance!

Anne closed her eyes and finally found the will to teleport further up the mountain. She felt drained, probably because the child inside her was sucking up her energy to live. She growled and aimed several tendrils at her stomach, prepared to tear out the creature that was the reason Slenderman was after her. She shouldn't feel guilt, she was only five weeks along so it probably didn't even know it was alive and it wouldn't even be human. But the tendrils quivered, refusing to move. Anne thought it was because she didn't want to risk the immense pain and/or death but no matter how much she braced herself, the tendrils just simply wouldn't obey her. They absolutely refused to dive, tear open her stomach and rip the foetus out.

But then again, maybe it was because of her purpose that her tendrils wouldn't do anything. Slenderman did take her and change her to be the vessel of his spawn after all, who's to say he didn't alter her nature so it was guaranteed that she'd keep herself healthy and alive to keep the child safe?

"Damn you," Anne hissed and her tendrils fell to her side "Damn you to Hell, Slenderman!"

_"Anne."_

Anne gasped as a searing pain entered her mind and she closed her eyes tight.

* * *

It was simply a telepathic communication. Anne relaxed when she realised that. He just wanted to talk, he wasn't trying to invade her memories to try and find out where she was. Inside her mind, Anne opened her eyes to see Slenderman's figment connected to her. He stared down at her with that expressionless visage that he was so well known for.

"Why?" she whispered as tears trailed down her cheeks "Why would you do such a thing to me?"

_"You think of it as a curse but it's really a blessing," _Slenderman replied in contempt _"You have been chosen to become my unblemished proxy and bear my children."_

"I never wanted any of this," Anne whimpered "I just wanted a normal life. I should be dead now. I should have died of old age long ago. I know my parents are dead. Jack is most probably dead now. And I definitely know that Margret's dead. It's been so long, the world of humans has changed so much now. I don't belong there anymore."

_"You don't need to go back to the human world, Anne. You belong with us. Come back and we can take care of our child and our future children."_

"Haven't you thought about it at all?" Anne asked and looked up at him "Your kind thrive and survive on humans. If more creatures like you appear then…"

_"It isn't…entirely necessary to feed on humans to survive," _Slenderman said.

"Then why do you kill and take so many…?"

Slenderman laughed coldly which made Anne shiver uneasily.

_"Because, my dear Anne," _he said _"It is delightfully fun."_

Anne's eyes widened as he continued to laugh.

_"Humans are so pitiful, so easy to corrupt and so entertaining when they become paranoid and obsessive."_

"You…you…" Anne squeaked "You take pleasure in such a horrible thing?"

_"They are only humans. Granted, you were one before and still are partially but you cannot deny that feeling you got when your popular elder sister suddenly turned into a person that should be sent to the mental asylum."_

"No…no, I never took any pleasure in seeing her like that," Anne argued "I wanted to help but she wouldn't ever let me and you had already broken into my mind so I couldn't do anything but watch."

_"And what about Jeremy? Didn't you enjoy manipulating him?"_

"You murdered him in cold blood!" Anne shrieked at him.

_"He took you and ruined you!" _Slenderman roared and Anne winced _"You would be perfect if he hadn't interfered!"_

"I'm fine just the way I am!" Anne argued "I'm only perfect to you if I'm under your control! But I can't just stand by and help and watch you kill so many lives that have so much potential in their world!"

_"You can't possibly take their side after killing so many," _Slenderman snarled.

"I can!" Anne cried "Even if I unwillingly killed so many, I still wish for humans to be safe from monsters like you!"

_"Don't forget that you're one of us! You're a 'monster' too!"_

"Only partially," Anne shook her head "I'm still part human! And even if humans are corrupted easily and they commit horrible deeds they still…they're still such wonderful creatures."

_"You dare…?"_

"They could be much better than you could ever be!"

Anne shot one tendril forward and cut the telepathic communication.

* * *

Anne's eyes shot open and she willed with all her might to teleport onto the other side of the mountain. She slipped a bit but slid down the rocky slope, her eyes landing on a small village. She gasped as a shadowed hooded figure came past her and waited for her at the bottom of the slope. Anne snatched the proxy's wrists before it could grab her and narrowed her eyes.

"You're…you're Kate, aren't you?" she said as Kate struggled against her "Listen to me, Kate, I need to have you give a message to Slenderman."

Kate paused and stared at her warily. Anne sighed and closed her eyes.

"I will give birth to the child and give it to Slenderman," she said "But only if he leaves me be and gives me peace and quiet for me to relax. I don't want anyone to come and disturb me. No-one at all."

Kate stared at her blankly and Anne let go of her wrists.

"Now leave, or else I shall kill you," she threatened "Don't test me."

Kate ran off, apparently taking heed of her warning. Anne placed a hand on her belly and sighed, turning and disappearing into the forest.


End file.
